WEBVTT ANDWERE BROUGHT HERE TO ALAMEDA COUNTY. >> ALMANY AND HARRIS'S ACTIONS WERE RECKLESS.>> 75 WITNESS INTERVIEWS, 12 SEARCH WARRANTS AND 300 PIECES OF EVIDENCE LATER.THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY ANNOUNCED THE ARRESTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DEADLY OAKLAND FIRE THAT KIMMED 36 PEOPLE. >> BOTH ALMANA AND HARRIS ARE CHARGED WITH 36 COUNTS OF INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER. HE LEASED THE BUILDING AND WAS ARRESTED IN LAKE COUNTY.HARRIS WAS ARRESTED IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY. TODAY, WE HEARD FROM THE ATTORNEY REPRESENTING SOME OF THE VICTIM'S FAMILIES.>> THERE IS A SENSE OF -- OF RELIEF THAT SOMETHING IS BEING DONE AND THAT THIS INVESTIGATIONIS LED TO ARRESTS AND CRIMINAL CHARGES.>> THE D.A. SAY THEIR INVESTIGATION BEGAN AFTER THE FIRE WHICH UNCOVERED DANGEROUS CONDITIONS OUTSIDE THE WAREHOUSE.>> THEY ALLOWED LARGE GROUPS TO ASSEMBLE FOR UNPERMITTED AND UNSAFE MUSICAL EVENTS IN THE SPACE.AND ON DECEMBER 2, 2016 PARTICULARLY THEY ACTUALLY BLOCKED ONE OF THE POINTS OF EGRESS LEAVING ONLY ONE WAY TO GET OUT OF THE SECOND FLOOR OF THAT BUILDING.>> BUT IN AN INTERVIEW WITH THE "TODAY" SHOW SIX MONTHS AGO HE DODGED QUESTIONS ABOUT THOSE CONDITIONS AND WHETHER HE SHOULDBE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.>> I'M ONLY HERE TO SAY ONE THING THAT I'M INCREDIBLY SORRY.AND THAT EVERYTHING I DID WAS TO

Two proprietors of the Ghost Ship warehouse in Oakland where 36 people died in a fire in December were arrested Monday morning and charged with felony involuntary manslaughter related to the deadly blaze.

Master tenant Derick Almena and the art space’s creative director Max Harris each face 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter and up to 39 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Advertisement

Almena and Harris “knowingly created a fire trap... then filled that area with human beings and now face the consequences of their actions,” said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley on Monday in announcing the arrests and charges.

Almena was arrested in Lake County and Harris, who uses the name Max Ohr, was arrested in Los Angeles County. Attorneys for Almena and Harris were not immediately available on Monday morning.

O’Malley called the actions of Almena and Harris reckless.

According to the charging documents filed by her office, Almena and Harris allowed up to 25 people to live in the space between 2014 and December 2016, without seeking a zoning variance from light industrial to live-work. That act violated city and state codes, the documents allege. In addition, Almena promoted the upstairs space as a venue for music and social events, with up to 100 people allowed to attend “inside this unsafe and unpermitted warehouse.”

Almena lied to law enforcement officers, “insisting that no one lived in the warehouse,” according to Cristina Harbison, an inspector in the District Attorney’s office and author of the document.

As the leaseholder, Almena was responsible under California Fire Code for installing fire supression systems, smoke alarms, exit signs, and sprinklers after he allowed people to live in the building. However, he failed to take these safety steps, charging documents said.

On the day of the fire, Harris acknowledged he allowed the party to take place and prepared the space for the music event, blocking off access to a second stairwell, leaving only one escape route, Harbison reported in the document.

Almena also encouraged residents, who paid $350 to $1,400 to live and work out of the space, to use unconventional materials to create their living spaces. That included tapestries, pianos, RV trailers, wooden sculptures and other “ramshackle” materials, also a violation of city and state codes, documents say.

Almena — the eccentric patriarch of the underground artist collective — lived at the Ghost Ship with his wife and children and rented out the building for the Dec. 2 party. He and his family were not in the building that night when the fire erupted.

A friend, Aaron Marin, who has known Almena for years and escaped from the Ghost Ship fire by jumping out of a second-floor window, had mixed feelings about the arrest.

“I know for a fact he didn’t intentionally want his place and all his stuff to burn and those people to die,” Marin said. “But’s it’s a matter of being accountable for the lives.”

Those who knew him had conflicting views of the 47-year-old, with some describing him as a loving artist and father and others calling him a slumlord.

While rare, prosecutors have brought manslaughter charges following non-arson fires.

In 2003, 100 people were killed at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island, when pyrotechnics set off a massive blaze during a show by 80s metal band, Great White. A grand jury indicted the pair of brothers who owned the nightclub, along with the band manager who started the fireworks on involuntary manslaughter charges.

Great White’s manager, Daniel Biechele, pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to four years in prison. Defendants Michael Derderian and Jeffrey Derderian were sentenced to four years in prison and three years of probation respectively.

The Ghost Ship fire erupted during an unpermitted electronic music event inside the ramshackle art space.

In the two years before the fire, police were repeatedly called to parties at the warehouse that was a bohemian collective and living space for around 20 people in the city’s Fruitvale neighborhood.

Teresa Deloach Reed, the now-retired Oakland fire chief, had said her department was unaware of what was going on at the Ghost Ship, despite the calls to police, complaints from neighbors and a fire station just blocks away. She retired on May 5 amid criticism over her management of the department and inspection procedures.

Family members of victims said Monday they want those responsible to face consequences even if it won’t bring full closure.

“I talked to my parents, we all feel pretty similarly,” said David Bernbaum, 37, of Oakland, whose brother Jonathan and several friends died in the fire. “We all have a lot of anger at Derick for all of this.

“That said, we know that this isn't something that isn’t going to bring anybody back.”Several families have filed civil lawsuits against Almena, Harris, the building’s owner, Chor Ng, and other promoters and performers at the event. They have also sued PG&E, saying the utility supplied power to the doomed artist space with “blatant disregard” for the safety of the people in the building.

The families have filed separate legal claims — precursors to lawsuits against government entities — against the city of Oakland, Alameda County and the state of California.

Authorities have not released a cause of the blaze, but investigators narrowed the origin of the fire to a shared kitchen in the back of the building’s first floor.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they were looking into the building’s electrical system, a tangle of strewn extensions cords weaving around the warehouse’s various rickety rooms, as the cause of the fire.

All of the building’s power came from a single source: a transformer box inside a neighboring auto body shop, attorneys for the victim’s families said in court papers.

Most of the victims were trapped on the second floor as a wall of smoke and flames engulfed the building’s escape routes. All of the victims died from smoke inhalation.San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Jill Tucker contributed to this report.